Crystallized glass spacer for field emission display and method its production

Abstract

Provided is a crystallized glass spacer for a field emission display resistant to charging with application of an electric field and resistant to chipping or cracking thanks to high fracture toughness. An SiO2—TiO2-based glass is subjected to a reduction and crystallization heat treatment at 600-900° C. in a hydrogen atmosphere or in a mixed atmosphere of hydrogen and nitrogen, to obtain a crystallized glass spacer for FED consisting essentially of, in molar percentage, SiO2: 20-50%, TiO2: 25-45%, MgO+CaO+SrO+BaO+ZnO: 20-50%, B2O3+Al2O3: 0-10% and ZrO2: 0-10%, and containing as a principal crystal at least one crystal selected from BaXTi8O16-based crystals (X=0.8-1.5), Ba2TiSi2O8-based crystals and TiO2-based crystals.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a crystallized glass spacer with a high resistance to progress of destruction, i.e., a high fracture toughness and with an appropriate surface resistivity, a method for its production, and a field emission display (field emission-type display, which will be referred to hereinafter as “FED”). [0003] 2. Discussion of Background [0004] An FED is an image display apparatus in which a large number of microscopic electron guns (cold-cathode elements) are arranged for each of pixels, and in which electron beams are emitted from the electron guns toward phosphors to form an image, like a cathode ray tube (Cathode Ray Tube, which will be referred to hereinafter as “CRT”). [0005] Since the FED arranged to independently drive the electron guns in each of the pixels, requires no scanning with an electron beam over a wide angle range unlike the CRT, an image display panel thereof can be made thin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] It is an object of the present invention to provide a crystallized glass spacer with a high fracture toughness to prevent chipping or cracking of the spacer while keeping an appropriate electronic conductivity like glass spacers, a method for its production, and an FED using the above-mentioned crystallized glass spacer.

[0023] When the SiO2—TiO2-based glass is subjected to the reduction and crystallization heat treatment in the production method of the present invention, the crystallized glass spacer suitable for use in the FED is efficiently obtained with a low surface resistivity and a high value of fracture toughness. The spacer is unlikely to be charged and thus unlikely to cause distortion of the screen image, and provides a high-quality FED. Furthermore, the above-mentioned spacer contributes to increase of the yield because a probability of occurrence of a chip or a crack decreases in the assembly step of FED panels and other steps.

Problems solved by technology

When the glass spacers described above were used, there was, however, a problem that the glass spacers cracked or chipped in part because of their low fracture toughness during handling the glass spacers and bonding the glass spacers to a panel in a panel assembling step of FED, thereby decreasing the yield.

Furthermore, as the spacers become thinner for higher definition of FED as described above, it is highly likely that the probability of cracking or chipping will increase.

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